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• Dojan@pawb.social ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Grew because the population became less homogenous.

  I’d argue that it’s more complicated than that. It’s a factor, but we don’t exactly have a great track record of treating non-Swedes that well. We were quite cosy with the German nazis prior to and during WWII, and were enthusiastic about racial biology. Note how poorly we’ve historically treated the native Sami population.

  We also still have a lot of systemic problems with e.g. “women’s professions” like nursing, cleaning, etc. not being valued fairly. Women’s health problems aren’t taken as seriously either.

  Further, the right-block are campaigning to restrict rights overall. It’s not just the nazis but the Christ-democrats as well. We’re talking restricted abortion rights, there’s arguments against LGBTQ+ people, and so on.

  The homogeneity was a helpful factor in establishing a more egalitarian system, but it’s not truly egalitarian, and there are still unequalities endemic in our society.

  I admit I have a bit of a knee-jerk reaction whenever Sweden or Scandinavia is mentioned, because we’re so often, unfairly, painted as some kind of nigh utopia, where people are equal, education and healthcare is easily accessed, etc. etc. but we have problems. I grew up in poverty, to an abusive single mother. I’ve seen some low points of Swedish society and I resent people glossing over their existence.

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  • fiat_lux@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Thanks for being real about it. As a non-Swedish-speaker living outside Scandinavia, I could only suspect that the frequent lionizing of Scandinavia (and dismissal of counterpoints with the magic word “homogenous”) was another flavor of white supremacy. I’m sorry that you’re dealing with exactly the same bullshit as many other places though.

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    • Dojan@pawb.social ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yeah, it is a problem.

      Like the most recent example I can think of is literally from yesterday. Used to be that healthcare and schooling was generally owned by the state, but over the past few decades with the right-wingers at the helm privatisation has grown and we now have significant problems with private companies exploiting public resources for financial gain.

      Thus we have people arguing that we should ban operating a company for profit in the welfare sector. So this Centre party leader demands that welfare should be profitable, while owning several private healthcare companies. That’s “jäv”, a conflict of interest, but this kind of bullshit is common nowadays.

      There are memes about it, every time a person in the Sweden Democrats get caught being a total nazi, there’s another “individual rotten egg” because that’s literally the entire party.

      We’ve had some great things going for us. We really went all in on workers rights back when the military came in and shot workers demonstrating for their rights., but we’ve got problems too. The most recent time a eugenics law was abolished here was in 2013.

      Chat Control was originally proposed by a Swedish social democrat.

      I’m happy to live here, but we’re not some utopia.

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      • fiat_lux@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Swap the names and this could have been an article from where I am. I’d give examples but it’s a small enough place that I try not to mention it online these days.

        The military action against workers doesn’t surprise me, but the eugenics sex change law thing was a truly bizarre law to begin with - and 2013 is… quite late. I’m guessing the name “Sweden democrats” is deceptive given that vote.

        I’m happy to live here, but we’re not some utopia.

        I hear you, I’m in the same situation. And thanks for the links, I’ve learned a lot more about Sweden than I have in many years!

        I hope we both are fortunate enough to make and experience progress again in our lifetimes.

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